NICOL A EDMONDS
FOUR CORNERS
BLADE RUNNERS
Left and above: Rob Pinkney making replica 19th-century axe heads in his Waikato forge. Opposite: Pinkney with whakairo expert Michael Matchitt (left), who carves the wooden axe handles.
Blacksmith Rob Pinkney is forging a fellowship between Maori and Pakeha artisanal traditions.
R
ob Pinkney has always had an appreciation for the elemental. There was his childhood spent roaming the Hokianga peninsula, and bullcatching as a 17-year-old cowboy in Australia’s Northern Territory – not to mention a stint in the wilds of northern New Guinea, hunting for crocodiles. He had plans to set up shop there with the local tribespeople and came back to New Zealand to rustle up the funds to buy a decent boat and some gear. But his dad refused to back him. “My old man wouldn’t give me money to get my venture started,” he recalls, “which was just as well.” Instead, Pinkney’s parents paid for their son’s stepping stone into an arguably safer choice of career. Not that this new line of work meant settling down. Following an apprenticeship with one of New Zealand’s leading farriers, Malcolm Telfar, Pinkney established the first foreign-run farrier practice in Japan. Now he travels to Europe by invitation each year to teach his craft. These days, he’s become a crusader of sorts, determined not only to do 24 | NORTH & SOUTH | AUGUST 2015
his bit to save what he sees as the dying art of blacksmithing, but also to recreate an unusual emblem of early contact between Maori and Pakeha. In 1815, according to Pinkney’s research, five axe heads could buy 50 acres of land in New Zealand. That was the price paid in a deal struck between a European missionary and local iwi in the Bay of Islands. Axe heads intended for trade were usually made in bulk – commissioned from British blacksmiths and shipped to New Zealand by the barrel-load. Those initial transactions marked the beginning of a two-way artisanal relationship that married the metalworking skills of Pakeha blacksmiths with the advanced knowledge of the resident Maori carvers, who sculpted local hardwoods into durable
handles that matched the blade. Pinkney has looked into the distinctive fan-shape of those first axe heads used as trade items, and he believes the design to be native to New Zealand. Some 200 years after those designs were created, he’s built his own forge near the small Waikato township of Mangakino, where he’s working alongside local whakairo (carving) expert Michael Matchitt to create six unique replicas. “There’s nothing more raw than making axes,” says Pinkney. “It’s as brutal and as basic and as technical as you can ever get. But it’s the cultural thing they represent that’s also massive for me. The relationship between me and Mike – the whole thing is a great project and journey.” An exhibition of the pair’s work, Trade Axes, is on show at the Village Arts gallery, in Kohukohu, until July 23, and there are plans for a nationwide tour. “I’m hoping they’ll touch the hearts of New Zealanders, especially the people who are a bit traditionally-minded and love what they stand for,” says Pinkney. Matchitt describes the project as “the pinnacle of Maori and European trades coming together” – paying Pinkney the ultimate accolade: “You’re really a Maori in Pakeha clothing, eh?” NICOLA EDMONDS